Talk Web Series With Us: It’s Complicated

Interested in web series? AKA short (4-10 min per episode), fun sized series on YouTube that cram as much story into one episode as an hour-long show would. Looking for suggestions? Seek no more. We’re bringing you Talk Web Series With Us, featuring a new web series every week! Sit back, relax, log onto YouTube, and explore the stories web series have to offer!

Next stop: It’s Complicated

Picture this. You’re a girl, who can’t get out of the lease with your ex-boyfriend, so you’re living together. Sounds complicated, right? But wait, there’s more. Now picture you’re stuck living with him while you’re also beginning to question your sexuality. And if that doesn’t sound hard enough, you start dating a girl during this time, and he wants to know everything about it. Talk about complicated.

That’s exactly what Cheska Bacaltos, the creator, and writer behind It’s Complicated, wanted viewers to feel- the awkwardness, the tension, and the tricky situation fueling Skye and Lance’s story. “The show is about self-discovery, friendships, and the thrill/awkwardness of new romance,” Bacaltos notes. She decided to write this show because a friend of hers, who had previously always identified as straight, fell for a girl. There was angst. There was drama. There was sacrifice. And she immediately knew this story had to be told.

Bacaltos told me something Kim Jannarone, one of her professors from UCSC, once told her: “Don’t be one of those talented people who doesn’t do anything. Because if you just get high in a fairy circle, your ideas will stay there and go in the ground and it will grow into a mushroom. It will be a pretty mushroom, but no one will see it.” So Bacaltos took that advice and is creating something for everyone to see.

Bacaltos knew she wanted the series to have a “romcom” feel to it- just a little gayer. She wanted to showcase the thrill of falling in love with someone you’d never expect, and the excitement and anxiety that comes along with it. She talks about the theme of the series- acceptance. “Lance accepting Skye for who she is. Skye accepting herself. Alex accepting the risk that comes with being attracted to someone like Skye who’s a bit hard to figure out.”

They have an incredible cast for the series- Devin Drain as Skye and Jordan Mitchell-Love as Lance. Samantha Gabrielsen plays Skye’s new love interest, Alex, and Giovanni Rincon plays Cody.

The series was originally supposed to be a short film- the pilot was meant to stand by itself. If the pilot was well received, then they would go on to tell more of the story. With this, came a lot of “writing and learning as we go,” as Bacaltos describes it. But with this also came more experience and passion in each episode. She compares it to “watching a kid get better with each piano lesson,” and I couldn’t agree more. Every episode brings more story, more character development, and more reasons for an audience to fall in love with this web series.

Season 1 consisted of 6 episodes and they plan for season 2 to have about the same. “Because we’re all artists and we do a lot of different projects, there’s never a guarantee that everyone can come back,” Bacaltos notes. She wrote the last episode of season 2, so it was open to telling more of the story, but it was also a good place if it needed to end. “I hate it when a show gets canceled, and there’s no proper finale.”

The series is about risking it all while acknowledging your true self. “It doesn’t matter who you fall for. It can be wonderful if you don’t fight it. It’s scary, but it’s also exciting. And don’t be in a rush to label yourself. For a lot of people, self-discovery is a lifelong journey.”